A. Robin Books

Every artist must eventually translate their creative path into the language of professional documentation, and that language begins with the resume. In this section, I introduce the different formats — chronological, functional, and combination — that artists can use depending on the story they nee...

From Artists' Resumes and Portfolios: Various Practical Guides

The artist statement is one of the most dreaded yet most powerful tools in an artist’s professional life. It asks you to move from the visual to the verbal, from intuition to articulation. Many artists resist it, fearing that language cannot adequately hold the essence of visual expression. Yet word...

From Artists' Resumes and Portfolios: Various Practical Guides

Let us begin with the fundamental idea. Throughout human history, the relationship between the state and society has been deeply ambivalent. A strong state can protect citizens, enforce laws, build infrastructure, and create stability. Yet, the same strength can crush dissent and turn the ruler into...

From The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty

History offers a panorama of failed attempts to secure liberty. Every civilization has wrestled with the problem of how much power the state should hold. We can categorize their failures into two broad types: the absent Leviathan and the despotic Leviathan. The absent Leviathan describes societies ...

From The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty

Our first task is clarity. Before we can trace the causes of prosperity and poverty, we must define the institutional structures that sustain them. We draw a sharp distinction between two archetypes: inclusive and extractive institutions. An inclusive economic institution is like fertile soil—it nur...

From Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

History shows us this institutional logic in action. Consider the Americas after European colonization. The Spanish built extractive systems in their colonies: forced labor under encomienda and later hacienda systems, where indigenous and African populations were ruthlessly exploited. These arrangem...

From Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty